The Cross and the Shamrock eBook

Paul did not think it prudent to allow his sister
to quit the house of her rich patrons so quickly,
especially as Mr. Goldrich was from home, and till
the public should be satisfied, and all doubts about
her identity resolved. There was some opposition
made by the parsons, one of whom, a Mr. Cashman, was
long fishing for the fair hand of Aloysia; but this
little dust raised by the “white necks”
was soon hushed, when the record of the baptism of
Miss O’Clery was produced, and when the book
of heraldry was consulted to verify the armorial bearings
of the O’Clerys, which were, as we said, carved
on the clasp of her necklace; and, above all, when,
on the left-hand ring finger of the young lady, the
same impression of a ring appeared which several persons
testified having seen on it when an infant.

CHAPTER XXV.

CONCLUSION.

During the denouement of the events recorded
in the preceding chapter, and the discussion of them
by the various religious newspapers,—­each
of which, like a well-trained spaniel, tried to bark
so as to secure the approbation of those from whom
it derived its food,—­Father O’Clery
continued in the discharge of his ordinary duties as
if nothing strange had happened. He addressed
one letter on the subject to the leading secular journals
of the city, showing, by the most convincing chain
of evidence, the identity of the lady passing so long
for a daughter of Mr. Goldrich with his own younger
and long-lost sister, and satisfying all but fanatics
and bigots of his prudence, and the propriety of the
steps taken by him for her recovery.

Mr. Goldrich, in the mean time, returned home, and
though he could not but feel astonished at the developments
which took place in his absence respecting his adopted
daughter, he was too shrewd and too keen a man of
business to make himself a tool in the hands of bigoted
parsons, or to deny the validity of the evidence proving
her to be no other than Aloysia O’Clery.
This was enough. What now was become of all the
talking, writing, swearing, and preaching of the dominies?
To what purpose was this big talk, loud exclamations,
puzzling interrogatories, and flaming articles of
the Babylonian press? For a whole month nothing
was published by the editors but “leaders,”
“articles,” “paragraphs,”
“communications,” “reports,”
“speeches,” “lectures,” “sermons,”
“mass meetings,” “resolutions,”
“protests,” and “letters of correspondents,”
regarding this “Popish plot,” “this
Romanist aggression,” “this priestly insolence,”
and a thousand other names, threats, and unflattering
epithets against persons and institutions, whose only
connection with the case of Miss O’Clery was,
that they belonged to the Catholic church, or dared
to speak the truth, or claim their rights. Now
the hundred-headed Cerberus of the press is silenced,
and skulks into its dark lair, beaten and silenced,
but not ashamed of the filthy dribblings of its lying